Christmas was simply wonderful, every second of it, and I finally found a few minutes to say so.
We started Wednesday night at our house with a gift exchange with his oldest son and his girlfriend. We made him hunt for his gift (a gun safe) by following silly poems scattered throughout the house until he finally discovered it in our bedroom closet. Of course we got it all on video. Punky gave her brothers the Eagles shirts she got them (she really wanted to buy Steelers shirts but I talked her out of it). Her brothers got her some nice clothes and a new toy. It was a nice evening.
That night Santa made an early appearance at our house. I was right…I barely got any sleep. I was too excited for morning, just like a little kid. When Punky woke up I brought her right to the tree to see all the packages that Santa delivered. And, as expected, she showed no interest at all. Sigh.
We proceeded with the usual morning routine and eventually managed to open all our gifts. Once she realized there were toys inside all that wrapping paper, she got curious and started helping to rip some off…but yeah, mama did most of the ripping. Santa was good to all of us this year; we must’ve been good kids.
That afternoon we headed to his mom’s for lunch and small gift exchange. From there, Punky and I made the long drive home to my mom’s for Christmas Eve dinner. We arrived just in time to eat, and Punky had a field day picking whatever she wanted off Grammy’s plate all through dinner.
We spent Christmas morning with Punky’s Uncle JJ, and again Santa was more than generous with the gifts. After a nice quiet morning, we headed to Aunt P’s for Christmas dinner and more presents with my family.
Everyone agreed to keep it simple this year. It was a rough one financially for all of us, and we agreed not to go overboard. Apparently, we are a big bunch of liars. It seems we all had trouble keeping it simple and spent more than we had previously planned to spend… I didn’t travel home for Christmas last year due to Punky’s pending arrival, so it was extra special this year and I think we all felt that way.
On Sunday, we celebrated Punky’s first birthday party at Aunt P’s house. She had her own little cake to squish and enjoy but she hardly touched it. Somehow I knew that would happen. She put her little finger in the icing and then just stared at it. I pushed her finger to her mouth so she would taste it and hopefully decide to dig in… No dice. So, for the sake of getting the typical first birthday pictures, mama helped her mash it up a bit and get some on her face and hands.
In hindsight, I should have approached it differently: If I hid the cake in a kitchen cupboard and walked away for a few minutes, she would have found it, pulled it onto the floor, rolled in it, and eaten fistfuls. Put it right in front of her with permission to make a mess and she acts like a little lady. I figured reverse psychology would eventually have a place in this child rearing process, but I expected it more around school age. Guess I need to pull it out of the tool belt now.
After all the gifts the previous few days, Punky wanted absolutely nothing to do with her birthday presents. Thankfully my four year old nephew was more than happy to step up and help rip them open, otherwise we’d have been there all evening.
We returned home on Monday the 28th with a car and truck packed full of stuff, and then spent the remainder of the day finding a home for it all. Punky really got a lot of new toys and books. Most things ended up in her closet still in their packaging. She has some new stuff to play with now, and I figure I can give her a new toy from her closet once or twice a month over the next year and she’ll never get bored. Talk about one spoiled baby…but then again, having Christmas and a birthday just days apart means double the stuff all at once…
I am looking forward to things settling down now in the New Year. I hope I can get back to writing more often, and be more specific than a general list of events. That’s all I’ve had time for lately. I have tons I want to write about, in addition to Punky’s status reports of course.
At any rate, Punky’s first Christmas and first birthday were everything I imagined they would be. It was such a wonderful week and I am more grateful than ever to have such amazing family and friends. Now there isn’t really anything to look forward to the next few months. Cold, ice, snow…spring is way off in the distance. Only 360 days till next Christmas. Maybe I’ll spend the next three months shopping online and I’ll be prepared way ahead of the game next year. Yeah, right.
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